Hey you made it to meeting time! Congratulations. That means you have a pretty good idea of what the environment looks like and have a basic set of goals to jump off on. This first meeting is going to be about getting people on board, signed up for a committee and ready to work. We covered a basic agenda for this first meeting, and I put a template up in Resources, but here’s the outline:

So you have your quest and a general idea of who you need on board to be successful. Now it’s time to put some more meat on those bones and get ready to go public and get to work. Before you launch, however, it’s important to have idea about what you’re walking in to and what it will take to win. We talked about SWOT analyses and how to identify your team’s Strengths and Weaknesses, and the Opportunities and Threats your strategy will work with or around.

For this episode we talked about how to identify people who will be essential to a successful effort, and how to get them involved. We also talked about what it takes to be a good organizer, and how to put those principles into play.

I’ve uploaded a template, as well, to help you work through finding the right folks

Additionally, we went over the very basics of Asset Based Community Development, particularly the 4 Hs, Hands, Head, Heart and Human. Hands are anything you can do with them from building a house to playing instruments and writing. Head is anything you can do with your noggin. Strategic thinking, stories, information, etc. Heart is your passions. What you care about. And Human is your relationships including work, family and friends.

4Hs

Finally, I’ve launched a forum for us to use, if you’d like, or feel free to email me any questions.

Welcome to the podcast. This project is all about trying to build better, more sustainable, more equitable campaigns and advocacy efforts. We’re going to go step by step, piece by piece, in what’s needed to get this done. I’ll post some notes and useful stuff up here on the site as we go, and invite you to comment and get involved in the conversation. God knows I am far from all-knowing, but I have a deep interest in this stuff and want to learn. So educate me, if I’m just being a moron.

This first show is an introduction to what we’re going to talk about, and just going over the basics of the basics – my general theory on organizing, the “Three Ps,” and writing up a basic strategic plan to get your operation moving. My plan is to run through a basic overview of how to build out a successful organization, and slowly blend into a show generally about political strategy and operations. I also solicited ideas for guests and topics so PLEASE suggest away.

3 Ps – Passion, People & Plan

You can see there’s overlap all over the place, and we’ll get to all of it, in time, but the basics are, you need to have all three to have an optimal and successful campaign. Sure you can still win without one of the Ps, but I’d argue it’s because of the choices of the opponent, not your operation. Again, I’ll argue my case in more depth over the coming weeks, but please discuss!

As for that basic strategic plan, answer:

Who: Who does this effort target. Who are the stakeholders and who is the perceived opposition?

What: What is your effort about? Basic mission statement. We aim to xyz – change a law, elect Mayor Quimby. Whatever it is. List it out as succinctly as you can.

When: What’s the timeline? What are the must-meet deadlines? Filing petitions? Filing registration paperwork? The end of a legislative session? Whatever the window of opportunity is, that’s what goes here.

Why: Perhaps the most important statement of the whole document, right here. What is your vision? Why does this need to happen and what will the world look like when it’s here? This is beginning of your passion drivers.

How: How the heck are you going to get this done? By votes? How many votes do you need? By signatures? How many? Maybe it’s a dollar amount if it’s not an electoral thing. How, in brief terms, is this going to happen.